Bravest & Finest Fight it out on the Harlem

Yesterday, when it was the National Learn to Row Day in America, there was a special rowing race on the Harlem River in New York City, ‘Heroes Row the Harlem’. Arranged by the organisation Row New York, a non-profit group dedicated to get children in New York City involved in the sport of rowing, the New York Fire Department (FDNY) and Police Department (NYPD) met for the first time in a rowing race. Both FDNY and NYPD crews had practiced for several weeks to manage to race in eights on the nearly 1,000-metre long course.

It seems the FDNY, the ‘Bravest’, had the best technique and soon left the NYPD, the ‘Finest’, in their wake. ‘Everything is about timing and that’s what we had over them because it’s all eight of us... eight of us working as one’, firefighter Caleb Dauphin said to Time Warner Cable News.

Row New York Executive Director Amanda Kraus also told the news channel: ‘It teaches really good lessons about working together, delaying gratification, learning how to be coachable, how to stick with something even when it’s hard’.

The race was followed by a fun afternoon of rowing lessons both on-land and on-water, and kids’ games, face painting, a picnic and a tour of the Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse, Row New York writes on their website.